The most famous — although slightly inaccurate— image of the attack on Fort Wagner

A sword which belonged to the commanding officer of the first all-black Civil War regiment to see action is now on display after its discovery in a Boston attic more than 150 years after his death in battle near Charleston harbor.

The sword was stripped from his body following the battle, but was eventually recovered by a Confederate officer after the war and returned to Shaw’s parents. However, Massachusetts Historical Society Vice President for Collections Brenda Lawson said the sword was lost to history after that. It was not until some of the descendants of Shaw’s sister went through the attic of her granddaughter following her death and found the historic artifact. [Read more…]

The president of the Citadel announced Wednesday he will retire from the military academy next year.

Lt. Gen. John Rosa has led the Charleston-based school since 2006, when he returned to his alma mater after serving as superintendent of the Air Force Academy.

“The Citadel will be celebrating its rich heritage and 175th anniversary in the 2017-18 academic year and will continue to produce principled leaders far into the future,” Rosa said in his announcement. “It has been my honor to serve my alma mater and a privilege for Donna and me to see our young men and women go forth putting service above self in the military, private enterprise, public institutions and in the pursuit of advanced degrees.” [Read more…]

The 7th District Southeast office of the Coast Guard said it responded around 8 p.m. Wednesday to a possible hazard in four containers aboard the Maersk Memphis vessel docked in the port. The response led to the evacuation of the port’s Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant.

Incident commander Capt. Gregory Stump said the lockdown happened after an anonymous caller and a YouTube video mentioned a possible “dirty bomb” aboard the vessel. He said the caller was vague on some details, but was “pretty precise” about four containers aboard the Norfolk, Virginia-based vessel. The caller left a name and contact information, Stump said.

He said a response team scanned the containers and cleared them without finding any threat. Authorities also created a on nautical mile “safety zone” around the Maersk while examining the threat.

A “dirty bomb” is a term used to describe explosives which have been combined with radioactive material.

Stump said the individual who made the call and posted the video was arrested in Zanesville, Ohio. “The reporting source with whom I spoke was coincidentally arrested on a totally unrelated charge,” he told South Carolina Radio Network. “Because this person is in custody now, the FBI would also like to speak with him.”

The interior of the world’s first successful combat submarine was revealed to the public for the first time on Wednesday.

The crew compartment of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley was small. Conservators working to save the vessel say they have a new understanding of just how cramped it must have been for the eight-man crew in 1864.

The Hunley as it looks now that more than 1,200 pounds of concretion has been removed from its surface (Image: Friends of the Hunley)

Crewmembers on the submarine made history during the Civil War, when the Hunley became the first submarine to ever sink a target. It torpedoed the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864. Shortly after the attack, the submarine sank just outside the harbor. It was not located until 1995 by Clive Cussler’s National Underwater and Marine Agency. It’s now housed in the Warren Lasch Conservation Center at the former Navy Base in North Charleston.

Working in the small confines of the roughly 4-foot tall hull scientists are slowly breaking off layers of sand, sediment, shells and corrosion that built up slowly over time on the seabead. [Read more…]

Laser weapons don’t only exist in space battles and video games. They’re built and tested in at Clemson University.

The Defense Department recently awarded two Clemson University professors over $3.2 million in grants to develop the next generation of laser weapons.

Material science professor John Ballato received over $1.8 million to improve the materials used to focus lasers in fiber optic cables. His research takes regular fiber optic cable , made out of silica glass (like window glass), and pulls out the chemicals that weaken the laser. Ballato aims to find create a material that specifically focuses light into a stronger beam, “so that the laser can operate more efficiently which means it can reach a higher power.”

(Photo Courtesy of Clemson University) Clemson professors John Ballato and Lin Zhu received $3.2 million from the Department of Defense to develop the next generation of laser weapons.

While most people might equate laser weapons with lightsabers or laser pistols from science fiction movies. Ballato says the Pentagon is interested in lasers that are used for more defensive purposes like shooting down missiles.

“The somewhat more obvious uses for those things are defensive,” Ballato said. “Somebody is shooting something at you, whether it is a missile or an RPG or something like that or a drone hovering overhead.”

Electrical engineering professor Lin Zhu also received a $1.2 million grant to learn how to power lasers more efficiently. Zhu’s research aims to increase the output of energy in common lasers used for surgery or machinery so they can damage larger targets. Those more common lasers vary in power from 10 to 100 watts, “but if you reach a 1000 watts or even 10,000 watts, 10 kilowatts then you can use that to probably destroy small fighters and a small ship,” he said.

The biggest problem Zhu aims to tackle with his research is how to keep a laser beam focused in a single direction after increasing its power ten to one-hundred times.

The $3.2 million grant from the Department of Defense will fund projects these projects for three years. Since 2011 five laser researchers at Clemson have received over $16 million to research laser technology.

Congressman Mark Sanford is facing one fewer Republican primary opponent next year after a would-be challenger dropped out Wednesday due to being called up for active duty military service.

South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford. file

According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Tom Perez said he was suspending his campaign to take on Sanford in the 1st Congressional District due to a military obligation overseas. Perez is an officer in the Naval Reserve who lives in the Charleston area.

In announcing his campaign suspension, Perez said he will be away on active military duty on dates that would overlap with parts of the campaign. Perez said he would not be coming back from his deployment until after the primary election in June 2018.

As of now, Sanford is heading into the 2018 election cycle expecting a primary challenge next June from Ted Fienning.

Sanford is in his second go-round representing South Carolina’s First Congressional District after winning a special election in 2013. He previously held the seat from 1995 to 2001.

Flying drones over military bases in South Carolina would be banned under legislation making its way through the state Senate.

State Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, offered the amendment that would ban drones from flying over military bases during debate Tuesday. “It basically would say that it would be unlawful to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle within a horizontal distance of 1,000 feet or a vertical distance of 400 feet from a state or federal military installation,” McElveen said on the floor.

State Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter.(Image: SCETV)

McElveen said utility companies which use drones to check on lines could still get permission from the base. “Any utility that wants to call protocol can do that and get that approval pretty easily,” McElveen said on the floor of the Senate Tuesday afternoon.

Some senators argue that airspace over federal military bases is not a state matter.

State Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, said South Carolina cannot regulate the airspace over federal military bases. “I’m not saying use an F-18, but the federal government has that authority. And if someone if violating that they ought to assert that authority,” he said.

Senators ultimately did not pass the bill Tuesday, carrying the measure over for debate later this week.

The Aiken Standard reports a federal judge signed an extension giving all parties involved until July 31 to come up with a jointly developed statement that will be used to frame the order.

The previous deadline was April 21. District Judge Michelle Childs previously ruled the U.S. Department of Energy did not comply with an agreement to dispose of one metric ton of weapons grade plutonium by 2016.

Gov. Nikki Haley and the state of South Carolina sued in February 2016, saying the federal government defaulted on its obligations to dispose of plutonium at the former nuclear warheads facility. The state sought $1 million per day in penalty payments, which Judge Childs previously tossed from the lawsuit.

The Energy Department said the waste involved will evenutally be reprocessed into nuclear fuel once a Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility opens at the Savannah River Site. However, that project is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

A former volunteer Columbia firefighter has been sentenced to a year in prison for a fake bomb threat at a veterans hospital.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said 21-year-old Karry Taylor III admitted creating the hoax so other fire stations would respond to the Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center hospital in January 2016, thus freeing up his own station to respond to any other calls which occurred at the time. He pleaded guilty in January.

Taylor was sentenced to a year in prison, three years of supervised release and must also repay nearly $1,500 to local fire and police teams for the cost of responding.

Federal investigators said in January 2016, three people received a text message that said, “Hey Montana, this is Sosa. Omar said he put a bomb in the parking lot or something…in the VA hospital on Garners Ferry Road. I am scared and I don’t know what to do.” Those individuals contacted law enforcement.

Columbia Police, Columbia Fire Department, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Police Department placed the hospital in lockdown, and swept the parking area for explosives. After determining the texts were a hoax, the FBI eventually linked the texts back to a cell phone and email account belonging to Taylor. Prosecutors said Taylor admitted after agents confronted him that he had sent the texts to random numbers in an effort to draw other fire engines to the Dorn VA Medical Center. Taylor indicated he hoped his own station would then be called to respond to any other calls that occurred during that time frame, according to prosecutors.

A spokeswoman for the company’s Greenville Operations confirmed the report’s details but said she could not comment any further because the announcement was not yet official.

The Air Force has halted its orders for the 40-year-old model as it moves on to the next generation of fighters in the F-35 variant. However, military leaders in other countries are still purchasing the planes. Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president of its Aeronautics business area Orlando Carvalho told the publication the company will take a two-year break in production after September to shift production to the Upstate.

Lockheed Martin already operates a smaller facility near the Donaldson Center Airport, which currently does maintenance and modifications on the company’s aircraft. Carvalho estimated the move could add up to 250 new jobs for the South Carolina plant, depending on orders.

The report notes Bahrain, Colombia and Indonesia are projected to order F-16s in the future.

Lockheed Martin’s Greenville Operations employs about 500 people, according to the company. In addition to aircraft maintenance, it also assembled the T-50A advanced trainer prototype aircraft which Lockheed hopes will win a Defense Department contract for mass production.